


Side Effects

by sarcastaholik



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hospital, Depression, Fluff and Angst, I don't know anything about illness or hospitals, I kind of know where this is going, M/M, More characters and relationships, No Smut, OFC - Freeform, Offscreen character death, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change, Terminal Illnesses, first fanfic, sorry if it's horribly ooc
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-03
Updated: 2015-05-03
Packaged: 2018-03-28 21:16:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3870049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarcastaholik/pseuds/sarcastaholik
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kozume Kenma has been surviving for the past two years by forgetting how to live.</p><p>Kuroo Tetsurou has been living to the fullest for nine months by questioning what it means to survive. </p><p>When two paths cross as the result of an unlikely admission the same hospital room for three weeks, both find themselves discovering what it truly means to be alive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Side Effects

**Author's Note:**

> This is the Hospital AU nobody asked for.  
> I published this some time ago, and I've decided to pick it back up for now, with a new plot line in mind. Nothing about the plot is in concrete, though. Sorry if the characterization is subpar. Anyways, please enjoy! Comments, kudos, and any advice are very much appreciated. 
> 
> *Disclaimer* I do not own any of the copyrighted fictional characters in this fanfic. Don't sue me.

Whenever it was spring, the cherry tree right outside Kenma’s window would go into full bloom. The sight of a thousand silky soft petals drifting lightly along the breeze was breathtaking. Kenma had even refused the offer to move to a private room because of the extraordinary view. It sat just close enough to touch if he’d scoot to the very edge of his bed and stretched as far as he could. Yet it’d never occurred to him to bother trying. The distance beyond familiar sterile rooms and halls were a universe away.

A soft knock penetrated the warm silence. A petite woman entered the room, and Kenma let out a small sigh that he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. His gaze shifted to the array of prescription bottles set atop a thin metallic tray for him.

He barely acknowledged her movements as each bottle opened with a resounding click. Two multicolored pellets shook out of a container in a clattering slide. He dumped them down his mouth. He gulped.

Swallow. Drink. Swallow. Drink. He followed the procedure robotically.

Riluzole. Diazepam. Baclofen.

Everyday was a rainbow collection of injections, pills, and drips.

The nurse smiled, and Kenma let his attention drop out of focus as she stepped away. She attempted to tell him something, but Kenma was already gone.

“I’ll let you know-”

He reached for his game console.

“-next time, maybe,”

The power switch flicked on.

“-your family’s visiting today! Isn’t that great?”

Kenma froze, suddenly his thoughts scrambling.

“My family?” he asked quietly.

The woman seemed astonished by his participation in the conversation. She continued nevertheless,“Yes! Hasn’t it been so long?” Kenma felt his chest constrict slightly, but he quickly fought to regain his composure.

“It has,” he murmured.

“I think they’ll be arriving shortly,” she remarked.

The nurse finally scampered away, and Kenma was left to digest the new information.

Kenma’s surprise was not unfounded. He’d appropriately assumed that his relationship with his family was over the day he was diagnosed. Kenma hadn’t regretted giving up the Kozume name. With his father being a media magnet and his mother long since able to cry crocodile tears, their initial visits had been accompanied by cameras and heart-jerking speeches. Amazingly enough, his mother was able to spin Kenma’s illness into part of his father’s campaign for governor.

Of course, in reality he was already dead to them. All that remained was a pipe draining their mass of financial assets, and perhaps, an opportunity to paint their family as ‘tragic’. His father had stopped coming the day the reporters left, and by now their sole connection fell under the coverage of any medical fees.

Slowly shaking his head, Kenma decided to put off the issue until he was forced to face it. He turned his concentration back to his game to begin a new quest on the console like he’d been intending to before the nurse interrupted.

He still felt hollow.

\---

Heat radiated off the cliffside in intense waves as it absorbed the beating mid-afternoon sun. Heavy beads of sweat rolled down his sweat-soaked hair and splattered onto the dry yellow rock. He drew in several deep heavy breaths to calm the heart pounding furiously in his chest. Then with a face-splitting grin, he heaved himself over and onto the clifftop.

With adrenaline-pumped blood surging through his veins, nothing in this world could stop him. He pulled himself to his feet and stood proudly above the rugged canyon he’d just climbed.

There was a light tap on his shoulder, and he whipped around. In front of him appeared a willowy girl, all light flowing black hair and fair freckled skin.

“Hey, Tetsurou. I’ve missed you,” she whispered.

He stilled as all the blood in his veins froze.

“You haven’t forgotten me have you? You promised you’d always be mine, right?” Her laugh was like the tinkle of bells.

All his bravado flooded out of his body, and he was left a discarded empty container. “I’m sorry,” he forced the hoarse words out of his sandpaper throat. The girl slided closer, and he jolted away. She reached out her left hand gently, as if to brush his face, and he stumbled backwards. The sensation of his body being suspended in air washed over him, and his eyes widened. Then, as if he’d been punched in the stomach, he was falling, plummeting, dropping. Before he could fully register what was happening, his halter snapped, there was a sharp, jarring pain, and his bones halted to a ricocheting stop.

An intense pain lingered in his left arm. The nausea and dizziness left his head swimming. He squinted at the light figure looking down on him. She seemed to mouth a phrase he could not make out. It was as if all the sweat on his body evaporated at once and left him in cold chills.

Then she flickered out of sight.

\---

Out of the corner of his eye, movement caught his attention. The door to Kenma’s room was closed, as always. Normally, the rooms adjacent to his were the definition of peaceful. With every resident waiting to pass on, ready to ascend to the heavens at any moment, it was always a strange sort of quiet. And now, it was not.

“No way, three weeks!? There’s no way that’s gonna work out, doc,” a male voice shouted unabashedly.

How considerate, Kenma thought with mildly.

In the hallway beyond his door, the new occupant’s voice was joined by another more firm and mature one. “It appears so. Your repeated history of injuries in addition to familial consultation has led me to believe that any time less than three weeks in the hospital will result in further harm to your body.”

“But, but what about the whitewater rafting this Thursday? Or St. Peters Bridge? I have to go bungee jumping alone?” the same whiny voice from before asked.

Kenma watched the game console’s screen flicker alive.

“Bokuto, calm down. We’ll just go next time. Let’s listen to the lady, I’m sure she knows what she’s talking about,” a muffled new voice said.

Kenma paused. He typically cared little about his surroundings, but it seemed like the guests were going to be a constant presence for some time.

"I’m not leaving you here, man,” the speaker had transitioned back to the original voice. Giving into his curiosity, Kenma looked towards the direction of the sound. As if on cue, the door to his room swung open.

Three people stood in the doorway. There was a guy that looked to be in his early twenties had a mess of black hair that stuck up like he’d just gotten out of bed. His left arm was encased in deep red plaster and hung in a black sling. The other young man who appeared to be the same age as the other had even more ridiculous hair. It stuck up in a V, and was white with black flecks. He was standing opposite to a rather beautiful woman with sleek black hair pulled back into a neat ponytail. Judging from her clipboard and stethoscope, she was probably the doctor.

“Don’t give the doctor a hard time. Wouldn’t want to give such a perfect face any wrinkles, right?” the one with the black hair said to his friend (or that was what Kenma assumed) smoothly. He shot a wink and a devastatingly charming smile at the doctor. She didn’t even blink. “You’ll be discharged in three weeks, then. For now you’ll be rooming with-” she stopped to glance at her clipboard, then Kenma. “Kozume Kenma.” The duo seemed to notice Kenma in the room for the first time.

“I’ll be checking up on you every now and then; please don’t go thrill seeking in the hospital,” she directed. With that she departed.

Kenma almost let out a chuckle at the guy’s expression when she showed no reaction. That type. Kenma began to observe the dark-haired boy’s features closely. He had long legs, so standing up he would be a lot taller than Kenma. His facial features could be correctly labelled as attractive.

Kenma had always been sure of his sexuality, so he’d never been particularly bothered by it. He’d had a few causal relationships in the past, but nothing ever lasted more than a few weeks. Apparently he was too ‘detached’ to have anything serious with. As one might’ve guessed, a hospital was not the ideal location for picking up guys, but it was mainly due to the lack of social encounters since he’d been admitted. Kenma realized that he was making eye contact with the black-haired man. A slow grin spread over the boy’s face.

Kenma quickly redirected his attention to his handheld game console. He felt a small amount of heat rise to his face as he tried to appear unfathomed.

“Hi there.”

Kenma’s flinch was barely noticeable before he turned to appraise at the speaker up close.

“I wanted to come introduce myself. I’ll probably be stuck in the bed next to yours for the next three weeks,” the black-haired young man said, energetically extending his right hand towards Kenma.

“I heard,” Kenma replied offhandedly, looking away in disinterest quickly.

“You did, huh?” a momentary look of indignation flashed across the guy’s face. “I guess we were pretty loud weren’t we?” he apologized, not particularly sincere.

“Well compared to what’s usually normal around here, yeah,” Kenma said while easily maintaining his bored exterior.

“I’m Kuroo Tetsurou. Nice to meet you, Kozume,” the young man still had his functioning hand extended. Kenma didn’t remark, but ‘Kuroo’ gazed at him expectantly.

“Just Kenma is fine,” Kenma finally relented resignedly and shook his hand.

A smirk grew on Kuroo’s face before he leaned in closer and murmured, “Pleasure to meet you, Kenma.”

Kenma, unperturbed by his low tone, chose to regard Kuroo dully. The growing ball of tension left both parties seemingly unfazed, until Kuroo decidedly backed away.

“Dude, what’re you doing over there?” Kuroo’s white-haired friend barked impatiently.

“Just acquainting myself with my new roommate,” Kuroo called back nonchalantly without looking away. In the second before he stepped past the room’s threshold, he turned back with a mischievous smile. “See you later, Kenma.”

Kenma wasn’t sure whether to be worried or excited, but he noticed with no shortage of amazement that he couldn’t suppress a small smile.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time publishing any writing! I have a chronic problem with finishing my projects, and this will probably be a WIP for very long. I've never had my writing reviewed before, and I'm actually pretty young, so if there are rarely updates (or updates at all...), apologies in advance. Also, if there are any suggestions about how terminal illnesses and hospitals ACTUALLY work, please let me know because I'm completely clueless. Again, any comments, kudos, and constructive criticisms are appreciated.


End file.
